As the Russian offensive against Ukraine continues, Instagram users reacted to a video showing what looks like the presidents of France and Ukraine having the time of their lives.
Part of the clip showed a montage of what looked like French President Emmanuel Macron dancing in different outfits and hairstyles, wearing makeup and wigs. Another portion showed someone resembling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy belly dancing in a red outfit.
“Presidente de Francia Macron??? Presidente de Ucrania Zelenski???” read the text in the March 19 Instagram video. Translated from Spanish, it says, “President of France Macron??? President of Ukraine Zelensky???”
(Screenshot from Instagram)
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Reverse-image search results show these clips are fake.
Most clips from the Macron dancing montage appear to have been altered from videos uploaded by YouTube channel StratusDanceClub in a series called “Circa 1986-1987.” We skimmed this series and saw 14 out of 20 clips from the Instagram video — and none of them show Macron.
(Screenshots from Instagram, StratusDanceClub’s YouTube channel)
According to the YouTube channel’s bio, the Stratus dance club opened in San Diego in 1978 and closed in June 1987. Macron was born in December 1977 and would’ve been 9 years old when the club shuttered.
The video supposedly showing Zelenskyy belly dancing was also altered. We found a copy of the original video posted on Instagram Feb. 7, 2022, and the person dancing bears no resemblance to Zelenskyy. Fact-checkers found that TikTok user @vusaaal first posted the video in October 2020.
We rate the claim these videos show Macron and Zelenskyy dancing Pants on Fire!
